


Summer Challenge 2014: Sweet Valley

by bloodredcherries



Category: Sweet Valley High - Francine Pascal
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-02-19
Updated: 2015-02-19
Packaged: 2018-03-13 20:10:16
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 2,368
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3394811
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bloodredcherries/pseuds/bloodredcherries
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Oops turns out I haven't been posting my fic to here in a timely manner after all. </p><p>So here are some random drabbly pieces from the last Summer Challenge.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Slate Grey

_Slate grey._ Ken hated it. 

Ken thought it ironic that Olivia was grey now. 

Slate grey. Olivia would have found that so boring. 

She had been bright. Colorful -- in more ways than one. Even her death had color. Copper-colored-fridge-color. But there was no more color now. At least not for Ken. So the grey was fitting.

She would have hated it. Even though Olivia didn't really hate. She was too good for that. 

But Ken wasn't. Ken hated a lot now. Ken hated earthquakes. Ken hated the Wakefields' and their stupid copper-colored fridge. Ken hated how things had gone from great to rock bottom in less than a week. 

He even hated color because he was reminded of her. What he had lost. 

And slate grey. 

Ken hated that most of all.


	2. Secret

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Maybe, maybe, maybe.

Maybe he wouldn’t have been in the hospital if he hadn’t brought the gun with him. 

Maybe he would have still been married. Maybe Jessica wouldn’t have left him. 

Maybe, maybe, maybe.

Mike’s current state had left him with a lot of time to contemplate the many maybes that had filled his life. 

Maybe if he hadn’t been kept a dirty secret from her whole family he wouldn’t be paralyzed. But that was the one thing -- the only thing -- in his mind, in his life that he couldn’t blame himself for. 

He would have still been a secret. She would have still been ashamed of him. 

And that hurt him more than the gunshot had. 

At least now he’d been noticed.


	3. Dubiously

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Weren't souffles supposed to be three dimensional?

Steven poked his plate nervously, clearly expecting the food to take on a life of its own. Jessica had cooked it, after all. 

He remembered the fish incident, thank you very much, he was well in his rights to be dubious that his sister’s culinary skills had improved. 

Fortunately, everyone else in the room shared his trepidation. Even Prince Albert wasn’t begging for a bite. And he ate darn near anything. 

Besides, weren’t soufflés supposed to be three dimensional? This one was as flat as a pancake. 

Jessica had been stepping it up lately, he supposed. She’d had to, with Liz gone who knows where, and all. But that still didn’t mean she could cook.

Still, when his mother gave him an expectant look, he knew what he’d have to do. He bravely -- dubiously -- took a bite. 

The things he’d do for his sister.


	4. Love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “She’s mourning him,” she corrected. “Haven’t you ever mourned?”

“Why do we do this?” Elizabeth asked, leaning in for a kiss. “We both know it’s never going to work.”

Mike shrugged. “You don’t know that,” he said, voice brimming with confidence. “Maybe she won’t even care. She’s all into that Nick guy.”

“She’s mourning him,” she corrected. “Haven’t you ever mourned?”

Maybe it wouldn’t be Jessica’s fault that their relationship wouldn’t last, Mike thought to himself, mood darkening. 

“I loved her,” he told Elizabeth. “And I mourned for what we had. What I thought we had. And what I knew we didn’t.”

“Whom? Val?” 

He let out a snort. “I didn’t love Val,” he said. He was never going to escape that misconception around the Wakefield family, was he? “But I loved her.”

“Who was it? You can tell me!” 

Mike shook his head. “I can’t,” he muttered, remembering just how horrible his shiny new girlfriend had been to him during their marriage. “We both know this is never going to work.”

Elizabeth stared up at him, her blue-green eyes exactly like hers. “You don’t know that,” she breathed. “It could be our little secret.”

He closed his eyes, rather involuntarily, at her choice of phrase. 

“I’ve already played that role with you lot,” he said roughly. “I’m not going to do it again.”

She at least had the sense to look vaguely guilty, even though Mike didn’t think she looked guilty enough. “But--”

“Don’t you think this would kill your sister?” Mike asked lightly. “Don’t you think she misses you? Imagine how mad your parents would get if they knew where you were at night.” He let out a barking laugh. “I can’t do this again. Not with you, not with her, not even with Steven.”

The Steven bit had been a joke, but Elizabeth had gone sheet white at the thought. Mike groaned. 

“You don’t love me,” he told her. “And I don’t love you. I’m not going to be your pawn against Jessica. I'm not going to play your game. You were the one who said it wasn't going to work.”


	5. Favorable

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> “Maybe she thought behaving like Jessica would get her your and Dad’s approval for a change.”

“Are you really surprised that Elizabeth left?” Steven demanded of his mother, who was dusting his kitchen table with a fury not seen since Elizabeth’s manslaughter charges. 

“She is being irresponsible,” his mother replied, moving from his table to his kitchen cabinets. “It’s not like her. She should have cared about Jessica.”

“Maybe Liz wanted to be the favorable one for once?” He asked sarcastically, regretting the question the second it had left his mouth. “Maybe she thought behaving like Jessica would get her your and Dad’s approval for a change.”

Alice Wakefield’s eyes flashed, and she put down the duster for the first time in her entire visit. 

“What do you mean by that?”

“Oh, let’s think,” he said, unable to help himself. “When Jessica hid her marriage and only told you it got annulled because you invited her ex-husband to Christmas dinner, you and Dad said you were proud of her for telling you. That’s one." 

"When Jessica’s boyfriend got killed because of her own stupidity of involving herself in his police work you coddled her into a prolonged nervous breakdown instead of being honest and telling her that it was her fault. That’s two.”

“And this latest is the worst of all,” he continued, not allowing her to speak. 

“Jessica has stolen yet another one of Elizabeth’s boyfriends and you are treating her like she is completely innocent because she has a broken ankle, which, if I recall correctly, she got because she was trying to skip out of paying for a hotel room.”

He shook his head. 

“But that’s okay because she’s Jessica. Hell, running to England would be okay, because it’s Jessica.”

“Your sister is not our favorite,” Alice insisted. “She’s the youngest, it’s natural that she’s a bit immature.”

“She’s twenty,” he muttered. “When I was twenty I got engaged to be married. She’s not a little kid anymore. And she is your favorite. And that’s why I don’t blame Liz for leaving.”


	6. Hold

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> He was still so confused... 1/2 AU Post Broken Promises, Shattered Dreams

"Are you feeling any better?" Steven asked Billie, nervously standing in the entrance to her hospital room, wanting more than anything to sit beside her, holding her hand, but a bit afraid she would throw something at him. He was still so confused by what had happened since he'd arrived home from Sweet Valley.

"Yeah," she responded, her voice barely above a whisper. "You can come closer," she continued. "I won't bite or anything."

"You really want me here?" He asked, his voice low, jamming his hands in his jeans pockets. "You're sure?"

"Yeah," she said, her tone pleading. "I want you to be here with me."

That, frankly, was all the invitation that Steven had needed. Truth be told, he was feeling incredibly guilty for fighting with Billie and making her start to bleed and potentially causing her to miscarry. The fact that she hadn't lost their baby had really done nothing to assuage his guilt. 

"I'm sorry," he said as he sat in the chair next to her bed, looking past her to a point on the wall. "I didn't mean for this to happen."

"You didn't make it happen," she protested, sitting up slightly, the sheets on the bed pooling on her lap. "It wasn't your fault."

One of her hands was connected to an IV, he noticed, but he reached out and squeezed the other, never wanting to let go. 

"Is it scared of me?" He asked in a small voice. "Because I yelled?"

"No," she replied. "It loves you. I promise."

"Are you scared of me?" That voice was even smaller.

She shook her head. "No, I'm not," she promised. "You can get in bed and hold me, if you want. It's alright as long as you don't disturb the monitor. That's how you can hear the baby. Maybe you can see it, too, it's on the screen."

"That's the baby?" Steven asked, as he slipped cautiously on to the bed beside her, wrapping his arms around her. "Wicked."

He kissed the top of her head. "I promise it'll get better," he told her. "I won't let any of them stress you out again, alright?"

"Alright," she agreed. "I know."


	7. Doubt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "I know," Steven soothed. "I'm scared too. But we'll be alright. We have to be." 2/2

Billie didn't know how Steven had managed to convince his parents to let them eschew the bedroom rule [something about pregnant fiancees who had only been released from the hospital a month ago, she presumed], but she was definitely enjoying the benefits of it. Oh, not those benefits, not yet, at least, but waking up with his arms around her was good enough. 

"Hey pretty," she heard him murmur, voice thick with sleep. "Don't get up."

She snuggled closer to him, thinking he had the right idea. At the very least they were safe from Hurricane Alice up there. 

And Hurricane Jessica.

And even Hurricane Elizabeth. 

"Can we stay in here all day?" Billie asked him hopefully, as he ran his hands down her sides. "Just the two of us? Three, I mean."

It wasn't as weird to count the baby as an us, as a real thing, after she'd spent 48 hours hooked up to a fetal monitor to make sure everything was going okay. She really had a baby inside of her. She was really going to be a mom. 

"If you wanna," he replied, a serious edge to his voice. "We can arrange for that."

"I want an ice cream," she told him, changing her mind on staying in all day. If they stayed in his room she'd never get her ice cream. And she really wanted it. "Can we get one?"

Steven grinned up at her. "Sure," he said. "We can get you an ice cream. Even though it's 9 am." He winked at her. 

 

***

 

"Do you think I'll be a good mom?" Billie asked him in between bites of the extra large ice cream she'd convinced him to buy her, plunking her feet on his lap as she did. 

"Yeah, of course," Steven replied, shooting her one of his special grins. She felt her face turning a fiery red. "You'll be the best mom in the world."

"I don't wanna mess up," she said in a whisper. "What if the baby hates me?"

"It doesn't hate you," he said. "You sound like I did when you were in the hospital."

"I know," she admitted, though she was rather loathe to. "It's just that I'm scared," she said honestly. "It's scary."

"I know," Steven soothed. "I'm scared too. But we'll be alright. We have to be."

 

***

 

"It's so strange," she mused, unbraiding her hair in Steven's bathroom as she did, while he brushed his teeth. "I'm scared, but you being scared too makes me feel less afraid."

"Yeah?" He asked, sounding like an eager kid even with a toothbrush in his mouth. "Really you really think so? I really helped?"

She smiled, pressing herself against him. "Of course you helped," she soothed. "You've helped this whole time." She sighed dreamily. "I can't wait to marry you. I would marry you tomorrow if we could."

"I know, babe," he said, hooking his arm around her waist. "I know. Me too."

He nibbled on her neck, causing her to squeal. "Stop it," she chastised lightly. "Your parents are home."

"I know," he moaned. "Hey, at least we'll be better than them?"

Billie giggled. "It wouldn't really be hard, would it?" She gave him a peck on the lips. 

"Nah," he shrugged. "But at least it cheered you up."


	8. Boldly

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Her mother was right.

"How did you hide your great aunt being missing?" Alice demanded of Elizabeth, rather irate. "Honestly, the two of you, she is an elderly woman."

"We had Tom pretend to be her on the phone," she said guiltily, looking downcast. "It was rather bold of us."

"It was incredibly stupid is what it was," her mother corrected. "You should know better than that, Elizabeth. Your father and I expect more from you."

She felt incredibly guilty. She and Tom had been incredibly stupid. Her mother was right.

Again.

"I'm sorry," she said, rather meekly. "You're right, we shouldn't have done it. It was Jess' idea."


	9. Wicked

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> "You think it's hot. Admit it."

"It's Christmas morning," Billie said in attempted protest as Steven spent some quality time nuzzling her neck. "At your parents house. Steve, stop it..."

"You don't really want me to," he murmured, pressing a trail of kisses down her clavicle. "You think it's hot. Admit it."

She let out a quiet moan. "It is hot," she agreed. "You're wicked, Steven. You know we shouldn't be doing this."

“We shouldn’t even be in the same room together,” he replied. “Why not break all the rules we can?”

She smirked. "You wanna break all the rules? I'm up for that." She kissed him feverishly on the lips. "It's Christmas morning, after all. I think you've been good enough lately to get a special present."


	10. Coral Blush

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The orange stuff that she had smeared over her lips was not in any way attractive.

Steven wasn't very used to living with a woman, especially someone as gorgeous and sexy as Billie was. [Not that he would ever admit that he thought she was gorgeous and sexy out loud to her. Steven wasn't like that]. 

Still, the orange stuff that she had smeared over her lips was not in any way attractive. 

"Did you have a creamiscle today?" He asked lazily, as he sprawled out on the couch, barely hiding his smirk when her cheeks turned pink. "What is that stuff?"

"It's my new lip gloss," she replied, a nice shade of crimson. "You don't like it?"

"You don't need that shit," he said softly, patting the couch beside him. "You're already beautiful."

He hadn't been able to help himself. It had just slipped out.

"You think I'm beautiful?" Billie asked in an eager tone, sitting in the proffered spot.

"Yeah," he murmured. "Even with that shit on your face."


End file.
